Highway 401 in Mississauga widening from 6 to 12 lanes

If you’ve driven on a four-kilometre stretch of Highway 401 in Mississauga in recent months, you might’ve seen a flurry of activity, excavators, trucks and heavy machinery. It is all for a good cause- this stretch of Highway 401 in Mississauga is being widened from six lanes to 12 lanes.

Premier Kathleen Wynne says the project will cost $81 million and be completed by 2019 and support 800 construction jobs.

She says the project will span Hurontario Street to Credit River and will have two high-occupancy lanes.

The government says the expansion is one of 230 highway construction projects that are expected to begin this year.

Highway 401 that passes through Toronto is considered to be the busiest highway in the world. It stretches 828.0 kilometres from Windsor in the west to the Ontario–Quebec border in the east.

Widening Highway 401 is part of the largest infrastructure investment in Ontario’s history — about $160 billion over 12 years. This investment is supporting 110,000 jobs every year across the province, with projects such as roads, bridges, transit systems, schools and hospitals.

In 2015, Ontario announced support for more than 325 projects that is expected to help the economy by making commuting faster as well as moving goods and overall improving the quality of life.

Investing in infrastructure is seen as the best way to grow the economy and create jobs.

While it makes sense to widen a stretch of highway in Mississauga, some argue that with the population of Milton and beyond exploding, planning to widen the entire 401 running through Milton should start soon. -CINEWS